


The Activity Club And The Sweet New Year

by Rubyya



Category: Paranatural (Webcomic)
Genre: Fluff, Jewish Character, Jewish Holidays, Jewish Isaac O'Connor, Jewish Richard Spender, Rosh HaShana | Jewish New Year
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-19
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:27:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26545981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rubyya/pseuds/Rubyya
Summary: It's Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, and Isaac did not expect this to be how it started.
Relationships: Isaac O'Connor & Richard Spender
Kudos: 8





	1. Club Bonding

**Author's Note:**

> Shana Tova everyone! I'm really proud I actually got this out on time. Holiday fics being posted on the holiday is a good thing.

“This is stupid,” Max announced, Isabel and Ed groaning in agreement

Mr. Spender sighed, “This is not stupid, this is all of us spending some quality time together without being in mortal danger.” 

“Yeah, but did it have to be during our lunch hour?” Isabel groaned, “Isaac isn’t even here.”

“He should be. When I next see Isaac he will be getting a lecture about this,” Mr. Spender replied.

All of a sudden the door flew open followed by a burst of air. Following that burst of air was Isaac, who ran inside the clubroom, slamming the door closed behind him.

“Ah, Isaac, so glad you could join us,” Mr. Spender said, “Would you like to explain why you are late?”

Isaac shrugged his shoulders, “Standard fare.”

“Get back here ye scurvy dog!” a voice yelled from behind the closed door.

“He’s not gonna try to take revenge on you like last week, is he?” Ed asked.

Isaac simply shrugged again. It wasn’t his job to figure out which spirits were going to attack him when.

“Anyways,” Mr. Spender interrupted, ”Let’s get on with the group bonding!”

“What about lunch? Can we get on with lunch?” Isabel asked.

Sighing, Spender let the kids eat their lunch. It would be better to let them eat now so he didn’t have to deal with them asking him the entire time when lunch was. At first, it seemed like the kids were content with simply eating their lunchies.

That is, until Max asked Isaac, “What are you doing?” 

“Eating my lunch,” was Isaac’s indignant reply.

“Apples and honey is your lunch?”

“It’s only part of my lunch. And it’s not honey.”

“What is it then?”

“Date honey.”

“So it is honey,” Max pointed out.

“No it’s not it’s fake honey,” Isaac pointed back.

“If it’s fake why is it called honey?”

“I don’t know Max!”

“So why are you eating it instead of normal honey?” Ed put in, causing Isaac to groan and put his head in his hands.

Spender smiled from behind his desk as the club laughed and embarrassed Isaac as they ate lunch. It wasn’t what he had planned, but they were having fun.

“It’s for Rosh Hashanah, ok? And it’s good,” Isaac defended, dipping another slice of apple into the honey pot he had in his lunch.

That got Spender to look up from his work. He hadn’t heard someone talk about Rosh Hashanah since he had moved out of his parents house. The last time he had actually celebrated had been even longer.

“We’ll see about that,” Max said, biting into the apple slice Isaac was holding.

“Hey!”

“It’s not that bad,” Max remarked.

“I want some too!” Isabel exclaimed, reaching across the table to steal one of Isaac’s apple slices, causing the whole group to erupt in playful arguing again.

“I guess today must be the start of Tishrei, huh,” Mr. Spender said out loud, earning him a glare from Isaac.

“Why else would I be eating apples and honey?”

“Date honey,” Ed said.

“Whatever.”

“Reminds me of when I was your age,” Mr. Spender started, “My family was never the religious kind but Rosh Hashanah was one holiday we always celebrated, or at least always had apples and honey on.”

Isaac choked on his piece of apple, “You’re Jewish?”

“I am.”

“But you always celebrate Christmas with us at the dojo,” Isabel frowned.

“As I said before, my family was never the religious kind, and after I left the house I don’t think I’ve celebrated a single holiday. Judaism doesn't really mesh with being a spectral. Christmas is more about the family and spirit than about Jesus coming back from the dead, though I think that’s what it’s about for most people nowadays.”

“That’s not what it’s about. Jesus was born then, not died,” Max said.

“Oh. I guess I need to brush up on my holiday knowledge some more,” Mr. Spender muttered.

The Activity Club all solemnly nodded their heads.

“So, uh, what exactly is Rosh Hashanah?” Ed asked.

“It’s a holiday about casting away the old and embracing the new,” Isaac started to explain, before being cut off by Mr. Spender’s explanation, involving desert, a rainbow coat, candles, giant fish, and bee queens. By the end of it Mr. Spender himself seemed a little confused as to how he’d come to the end.

“That was the worst explanation for anything I have ever heard,” Max concluded, leaning over Isaac to steal more apple slices and honey.

“That didn’t even have anything to do with Rosh Hashanah!” Isaac spit out.

“Now, Isaac, I’m sure you’ll learn all about what it means when you get older and after your Bar Mitzvah,” Spender chided.

“I’ve had my Bar Mitzvah. I’m thirteen turning fourteen this year,” Isaac told Mr. Spender, almost sighing at how mixed up he seemed to be about tradition.

“Issac, I think I know more than you.”

“No! No you don't! You just told us you were never really religious and didn’t even really do any of the holidays and now you’re telling me that I have it wrong when I’m actually trying to learn about them?” Little sparks of electricity danced around Isaac’s hands.

“Isaac, it would be nice if you trusted me a little. I do know what I am talking about.” Mr. Spender attempted to calm the medium down. It failed, miserably.

“Would you just shut up?” Isaac screamed at Mr. Spender, lightning crackling around his closed fists.

Everyone in the room took an involuntary step back.

“I get that I’m different from everyone else. I’m a year older. I’m the only medium. I’m the only Jew. You don’t need to keep pushing it in!” Isaac grabbed his bag and ran out of the clubroom, leaving a literal storm in his wake. Quiet sobs filled the hallway, cut short by the door slamming shut.

“That didn’t go as planned,” Mr. Spender commented.

“You think?” Max asked.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have talked about Rosh Hashanah like that. It seemed pretty important to him,” Isabel said.

“I was just trying to help him feel like he had someone he could relate to,” Mr. Spender tried, but it sounded fake even to him.

“Well if he is going to a river it’ll probably be the one we passed by on the way to school when we walked together,” Max said, “It was by a forest and the road.”

Steeling himself, Mr. Spender asked Max, “Could you show me the river on a map?”


	2. Teacher Bonding

Mr. Spender found Isaac sitting right next to a small river, right where Max had said he would be. Next to Isaac was a small loaf of bread, or more exactly half a loaf of bread, the other half having been thrown in the river. Mr. Spender didn’t exactly know how to Isaac about a delicate topic without it ending in yelling, but he figured apologising was a good start. 

“Before you say anything Isaac, I need to say I’m sorry,” Mr. Spender started, stopping to see how Isaac would react.

“I’m sorry too,” Isaac said, barely above a whisper, as he threw another handful of bread into the river, “I shouldn’t have gotten mad.”

“You are just full of surprise today, huh?” Spender said, unable to help himself.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“First of all,” Spender said, ticking the points off on his fingers, “You made quite the entrance into the clubroom today. Second, I learned that you were Jewish. Third, you said sorry to me instead of yelling at me like you usually do. I’d say that’s pretty different then how you normally act.”

“Yeah, well, I’m trying to change that,” another handful of crumbs was thrown into the river.

Mr. Spender took a good look at Isaac. Everything about his character, from his orange hair to his blue eyes grabbed attention, yet his body was curled up into itself, and his voice was just enough to be heard. Mr. Spender sat down next to Isaac, placing a cautious hand on his shoulder. Without a word, he used his other hand to break off a piece of bread, and threw it into the river.

“Isn’t there a prayer for this?” Mr. Spender asked, “Something, something, casting our sins to the depths of the seas, something something?”

That got a laugh from Isaac, “There is a prayer, I just don’t know it off the top of my head. Though I do know it doesn’t start and end with something, something.”

Spender took another look at Isaac’s face. It was determined, but also sadder than he was used to seeing, the humor from his joke having already faded away. His movements, normally large and attention grabbing, now small, and only enough to throw crumbs into the river, nothing more.

“Why don't you tell me what you do?” Spender tried.

Silence.

“Isaac I can’t learn if you don’t tell me anything.”

“You never listen to anything I say,” Isaac laughed, “Why would you start now?”

“Because I’m human. I make mistakes. But the thing about humans is that they learn from their mistakes,” Spender said gently, quickly adding, “That’s what I’m doing. Learning. In case you didn’t realize that.”

“Thanks,” Isaac mumbled, quiet enough that Mr. Spender was sure he wasn’t supposed to hear it.

Taking a look at the time, Mr. Spender stood up and brushed his pants off, extending a hand to Isaac, “We should start heading back if we want to get back before the end of lunch. Might even have time to do a quick version of what I had originally planned to do.”

Without a word Isaac took Mr. Spender’s hand, and the two of them walked back to the Activity Club together.

**Author's Note:**

> Here's an article explaining Rosh Hashana for all y'all who don't know what it is. I wanted to explain it better in the fic, but I also know a lot of fics are basically just the character explaining the holiday and I didn't want to do that. I hope y'all enjoyed even if you didn't fully understand the customs.  
> https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/mind-and-soul/what-is-rosh-hashanah-here-s-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-holiday/ar-BB17y0xN


End file.
